1 hour ago, Lucifers Hero said:

In the last game Petracca was parked forward because he was very ill, May played for 15 minutes and Petty injured early and restricted for the rest of the game.  Our backline was all over the shop trying to plug gaps.  TMc also out of the side.

Despite that we had them at half time with the scores 6.8 to 2.7. 

Longmuir saw our team was weakened at both ends of the group and exploited it:  He tagged Oliver.  When an opp coaches tags him or Petracca the other has a field day.  But they were both restricted.  Freo started dominating the middle.

Our defence was also weakened all over the ground, we semi panicked and kicked straight to their tall defenders giving our small fwds no chance. 

It will be a very different game tonight.

Dees to win by 3-4 goals.

You summarise beautifully what's wrong with the shallow pundits around the AFL.

Ross Lyon on Wed analysed the last game and what Freo did to win.

Top of his list was Lobb(I think)  vs May and May being beaten on the night.  As you point out he was concussed early.Pretty hard to play when your not on the ground.

Lyon should get a please explain and hand his appearance fee back for the lousy preparation he did for the show.

Chalk and Cheese is how i would describe last game and tonight.  Wer'e not great, but should have dealt with the Dogs last week and  that Freo are off the boil

Will be interesting

38 minutes ago, In Harmes Way said:

I wonder if the local constabulary are going to turn up with a Boos Bus?

Fixed

I hope Goody has on the whiteboard:

They kicked 12 goals to our 1 in the 2nd half in round 11 on our home ground

time for payback

2 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

At Gussy’s first touch tonight the Richter scale might just register six point something.
A richter for every year of his contract. 😃

There will be a mild earthquake over my way and next week when he runs out on our ground there should be another huge outpouring from the MFC supporters. We'll show Jacko what he will be missing.

Why did the repairs to the surface not begin last week when it was reported to be in poor condition?

Turf will be flying, players buckling. 

We could have been training on Gosch's for the last 10 weeks.

Cancel Optus and use Subiaco or one of their WAFL grounds. 

Edited July 29, 20222 yr by kev martin

1 hour ago, Jaded No More said:

A Boo Ban?

Jesus the people of WA are special. 

I am from WA and can confirm I am attending the game tonight and will not boo Jacko 

1 minute ago, Longsufferingnomore said:

There will be a mild earthquake over my way and next week when he runs out on our ground there should be another huge outpouring from the MFC supporters. We'll show Jacko what he will be missing.

Definitely, LSNM!
The love for Gussy will only increase week to week. We’ll bring the roof down next Friday at the ‘G. Well, no roof at the ‘G, but you know what I mean. ❤️💙 💪 👊🏼❤️💙

Have flown over to watch the game for a Bucks Party. Groom is a massive Eagles fan and he’ll be barracking hard for us to touch up the Dockers. 

I remember vividly the Round 11 game at Subi against the Dockers in 2004. Bucketed with rain and was a slopfest. Hoping the wet conditions will hurt Freo as it did against the Suns and Pies.

I don't get the Boo.

Perhaps when the umps do a howler, or a mongrel act occurs.

To boo champions is a disgrace. 

It can end up like what happened to Adam Goodes (for example) and impact for a long time on others.

The club should stand up against the media. Make a statement about inclusion and to enjoy amazing skills from both sides of the fence.

Bad example to the young,  doesn’t promote sportsmanship and creates divide. 

The divide sells product, but effects our communities, adversely.  

Where's the Boo bus! 

25 minutes ago, OhMyDees said:

Have flown over to watch the game for a Bucks Party. Groom is a massive Eagles fan and he’ll be barracking hard for us to touch up the Dockers. 

I remember vividly the Round 11 game at Subi against the Dockers in 2004. Bucketed with rain and was a slopfest. Hoping the wet conditions will hurt Freo as it did against the Suns and Pies.

Peter Vardy on fire that day 🔥

Haven't beaten Freo since Round 1, 2021.

If we lose again, might have to dig out the Embarrassing Records thread. (Seriously, isn't it great that we're not talking about a losing streak of 8+ games, or whatever?)

Go Dees!

As much as I am sure we will play like a home side tonight (it was our finals home ground after all), I am still concerned that we have not picked a side to beat Freo.

Since our loss to the Pies we have scrapped our three talls down back, three talls up forward set up and Freo have a plethora of solid high-marking talls (Darcy, Cox, Pearce, Ryan, Lobb, Taberner and Logue) - that's one more than us. They also have back-up three-quarter talls in Young and Chapman. So it had better be wet or slushie. If not we better have a late change on the horizon.

We also named eight defenders this week. Is one a late withdrawal or is Brayshaw going to go into the middle to tag his brother - not a bad idea I reckon, except I doubt it will happen because our guys train in their three clusters and Goody and selectors never seem to switch roles, unless catastrophic injuries occur.

Is Rivers going to take Frederick again. This was the match up that cost us big time at the MCG and it looks to me like it is on the cards again. Let's hope redemption comes for our boy. 

Where will Jayden play. We lost Harmes from our midfield/forward rotation and replaced him with an extra defender - is he going to play as a forward or provide run and carry from down back sadly missing in recent weeks. Or could James Jordon be sent into the middle to tag Brayshaw, allowing Jayden to play his wing. 

Ultimately our big advantage is that we have a player who loves the hard stuff - Viney - and even if Oliver is tagged by Aish (and he will be), he can be the difference and the reason we get first use of it. And hopefully Trac lifts. If he doesn't it's hard to see us taking control of the game. And if it is a hurried, harassed first use by Viney, Trac and Olly, then Freo's tall defence will gobble it up.

Excited? Yes! Worried about our planning? Not if we win!

Another must win game which even if we win won't tell us much as Freo are as out of form as we are.

 

Fire 🔥 Up Demons!

Dying seconds of the match.

Demons three points down. 

Oliver gets his final desperate clearance of the match and kicks wildly into the forward 50. 

Huge mark taken by Luke Jackson, thirty metres out on a slight angle. 

Siren sounds…

What if Melbourne play Fremantle in the finals, heaven forbid the GF.

And suppose the club knows LJ is leaving for Freo in 2023.

Do we play him . Probably yes.

The two most out of form teams in the 8 play each other

2nd Vs 5th

Clarry is going to go nuts. 40 and 2

Tonight is do or die for our season I think. We either get it together, and start to return to our defensive best all over the ground, or we let this season slip away. 

Do our players want it badly enough? Do they think it will just happen like it did last year?

We find out a lot about ourselves tonight. At our best, we are still the best of the best. We just need to get back to what made us the best. 

Time to turn it on Demons 

Mind and Body

Last year we had quake before huge win in Perth. 
Looking for any omen but here in Luzon felt a full minute tremor on Tuesday from Force 7.0 Quake 200 km north. 
Sadly 4 folk died 🙏

2 hours ago, Lord Travis said:

Hunt in was a good call by the selection committee. He's almost our best lockdown defender, and our balance has been off since his omission. Freo have poor tall forward options, especially if Lobb is curtailed. Hunt in helps lockdown the smalls like Walters, Schulz, Frederick etc. Freo will get momentum at some point, so Hunt and Hibberd's defending tonight will go a long way to determining the result IMO. 

Freo were a legit contender at the mid point of the year, but they've fallen away defensively recently. Very similar to us actually. I expect our midfield to fire up tonight and work harder both ways to get back to the Melbourne brand after degenerating into a shoot out last week.

Any idea who's spot will Hunt take? Brayshaw, Salem or Petty?

It's time to put #flagmantle to bed once and for all.

Replace it with #dismantle

Dees 80 - Freo 38 ✊

3 hours ago, Demon17 said:

You summarise beautifully what's wrong with the shallow pundits around the AFL.

Ross Lyon on Wed analysed the last game and what Freo did to win.

Top of his list was Lobb(I think)  vs May and May being beaten on the night.  As you point out he was concussed early.Pretty hard to play when your not on the ground.

Lyon should get a please explain and hand his appearance fee back for the lousy preparation he did for the show.

Chalk and Cheese is how i would describe last game and tonight.  Wer'e not great, but should have dealt with the Dogs last week and  that Freo are off the boil

Will be interesting

He had 5 x bullet points with 2 that mentioned shutting down May and May being beaten in that game. I tuned out.

So isn’t this now the time we should be benefiting from the loading?

Absolutely no excuses, this is a must win game.

Im happy Hunt gets another chance.